Rome Open CIty Redux

I have re-watched Roberto Rossellini's neo-realist masterpiece Rome Open City (1945) as part of the Criterion Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy.(It also contains Paisan and Germany Year Zero) The film is still a harrowing account of the Nazi occupation of Rome and those brave few who fought them. This series is loaded with great extras; this volume includes: video introduction by Roberto Roseelini from 1963, audio commentary featuring film scholar Peter Bondanella, Once Upon a Time . . . “Rome Open City,” a 2006 documentary on the making of this historic film, featuring rare archival material and footage of Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, Ingrid Bergman, and many others, new video interviews with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà, Rossellini and the City, a new visual essay by film scholar Mark Shiel (Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City) on Rossellini’s use of the urban landscape in the war trilogy, and a new video interview with film critic and Rossellini friend Father Virgilio Fantuzzi, who discusses the filmmaker and the role of religion in Rome Open City. A great edition of a world classic.